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Peyton Westlake
"I'm everyone - and no one. Everywhere - nowhere. Call me... Darkman." - Dr. Peyton Westlake Dr. Peyton Westlake is the main protagonist of the Darkman series. A former scientist who was horribly disfigured and left for dead by mobsters, he swore revenge against those responsible and became the mysterious Darkman, using his knowledge of synthetic skin to replicate the appearance of his foes. History Background Once a brilliant chemist, Peyton was working to develop the perfect synthetic skin to replace skin graph procedures in severe injury cases. After several experiments, he could only make the skin last 99 minutes, after which it degenerated into a puddle of foul smelling waste product. One night, he proposed to district attorney and dear friend Julie Hastings to marry him, but she was hesitant and left Peyton without an answer. That very night, the lights in his lab went out during a skin experiment, and he discovered the skin lasted longer in darkness due to the synthetic cells photo-sensitivity to UV light. Within mere seconds of the discovery, Robert G. Durant and his gang raided his lab on the orders of real estate tycoon Louis Strack Jr., looking for the "Bellasarious Memorandum", a document that was left there by Julie, containing incriminating evidence that could implicate Strack secretly paying off the city's zoning officials to allow him to build his "city of the future." Peyton’s lab assistant, Yakitito, attempted to fight off their assailants but was overpowered by the ruthless gangsters. As they began to suffocate Yakitito, Peyton begged his attackers to let his assistant breathe, only to helplessly watch him be executed right in front of him. Afterwards, the gangsters then proceeded to subject the scientist to painful torture; burning his hands on electrical transformers, dunking his head into a vat of boiling solvent, then leaving him to die in an explosion set up by Durant with two flammable tanks, a dipping bird and a lighter. Peyton’s badly burned body was thrown clear from the building and into the nearby river. Julie was standing outside of the lab when it happened and watched in horror as Peyton's lab was engulfed in flames. Peyton is presumed dead, blown to bits because the biggest piece of him they found was an ear, she has a quiet funeral for him and continues her life. Becoming Darkman Barely alive, Peyton was found by fishermen and taken to the hospital. Unable to identify him and due to the severity of his injuries, the surgeons of the burn ward subjected Peyton to Rangeveritz technique, a radical life-saving procedure that severed his thelmic nerve, rendering him unable to feel pain and in turn any physical sensation. In addition, Peyton's strength and endurance were greatly enhanced by flows of adrenaline, though his mentality was rendered highly unstable. He escaped from the burn ward and headed into the streets, finding a black trenchcoat and a fedora hat. He would set up a new lab with all of his salvaged equipment in an abandoned factory to continue his synthetic skin research. While Darkman continued his experiment, he comes to realize his desire to exact revenge on the men who destroyed his life. One night while watching Julie at a party, he saw Durant and Rick, the man who killed Yakitito. Later that night, Darkman confronts Rick, beats information out of him about Durant and kills him by shoving him out of a manhole during late night rush hour, causing a truck to crush his head. The second to go would be Durant’s muscle Paulie. Darkman used his skin to imitate him, steal a briefcase of money from Durant, and let Paulie take the blame. Durant had Paulie thrown out of a window of his high rise apartment. Peyton managed to rebuild his face from a damaged photo and went back to see Julie after a brief reunion he fails to tell her of his disfiguring experience and his transformation to Darkman. Darkman imitated Durant next in order to steal money from an important deal he had with a crime boss in Chinatown, Durant and his men were baffled when they confronted Durant’s double. Darkman escaped from the clutches of his enemies while Durant and his men shot at him. The sudden change in Peyton became apparent to Julie when she witnessed him viciously attack a carnival worker who was trying to cheat them. She went and told her boss, Louis Strack, Jr. He then revealed that he was responsible for the attack on Peyton and was in league with Durant. She left, and Strack called Durant and told him to follow Julie. Later Julie went back to Darkman’s factory hideout, there she was immediately captured by Durant’s men, They took her to Strack while two of Durant’s men, Smiley and Rudy, pursued Darkman into his lab. Durant circled around in a helicopter, using a mini grenade launcher to kill the man he destroyed. Darkman managed to disguise Rudy as himself and get shot by Smiley, after which Darkman beat Smiley and left him to die in the very same kind of explosion they left him in. Darkman climbed onto Durant’s helicopter, after a brief struggle, Darkman was knocked of the railing but managed to grab and hold tight to the helicopter crane cable as Durant tried to blow him up. Darkman hooked the cable to a semi truck and the helicopter crashed when it entered a tunnel, supposedly killing Durant. That night, Darkman confronted Strack and Julie at one of Strack's unfinished buildings, they fought and Darkman got the upper hand, he dropped Strack head first of the 650 foot structure. Julie tried to convince him to return to his previous life with her, but he told her that even if he perfected his skin and covered his wounds, he would still be a monster unable to control his rage and strength. He left Julie, disappearing into the streets in another mask. The Return of Durant Several years afterwards, Darkman set up a new lab in a abandoned subway station; he continues to try to perfect the skin but with no avail. While reading a science magazine that he got from his mail, he learns that a scientist named David Brinkman was developing a similar project. He goes to meet Brinkman to see two men trying to force him sell his factory home, Darkman intervenes and gives Brinkman his research on a disk. The next day, Darkman finds Brinkman and his sister Laurie arguing, afterwards Brinkman proposes a partnership to finish the skin together. Peyton happily agrees and leaves when his mask was minutes away from disintegrating. That night, while Brinkman was running a skin experiment, the men who confronted him that mourning returned with some more thugs and their boss, Robert G. Durant, who survived the helicopter crash and had recently awaken from a 878 day coma. They demand that Brinkman sign his building over to them, Brinkman refused and attempted to attack with a homemade laser weapon. Durant has his goons brutally torture and kill Brinkman. Darkman shows up too late to find Brinkman's body, he instantly knew Durant was responsible due to Brinkman's missing finger, Durant’s signature. The progress they made gone, Darkman continued from scratch, but his rage and grief over Brinkman’s death and the reemergence of his nemesis prompt him to pursue his old mission, revenge. After attending Brinkman’s funeral, Peyton learned that Laurie Brinkman intends to sell David’s building to Durant, he tries to convince her other wise but fails, he then turns to reporter Jill Randall for help, she provides him information on Durant and his plans. Soon after Jill learns Darkman’s identity, she goes on the news and tells about Durant’s return. That same night Jill Randall dies from a car bomb, Durant saw her broadcast and ordered her death. Darkman begins imitating Durant’s gang again, he learns Durant is using the factory to produce highly advanced assault rifles capable of incredible destruction and intends to sell to a Neo Nazi organization that promises wipe out all crime in the city, thusly leaving Durant without competition. Laurie Brinkman discovers Durant’s involvement in David’s murder and refuses to sell, Durant kidnaps her and intends to kill her, but Darkman shows up, saves her, kills all of Durant’s thugs and traps Durant in his car with a bomb. Darkman explodes Durant; he is convinced that he killed him this time and leaves to return to perfecting his skin. A New Adversary A few months after supposedly killing Durant, Peyton continues his research. In order to fund his experiment, he steals money from drug dealers. One night, he steals a case of money from drug lord Peter Rooker. He used it to purchase a crate of medical supplies, which had a tracking device on it planted by Dr. Bridget Thorne. Thorne follows Darkman to his lab, she reveals to him that she was one of the doctors who performed the Rangeveritz procedure on him. She offers to perform an experimental operation to repair his the thelmic nerve, Darkman agrees on the grounds that he get to use her lab to perfect the skin. After the operation, Darkman runs his data through Thorne's equipment and after countless failed experiments he finally is able to synthesize a permanently formula for his skin, he uses it to create a batch for his face. But just as he discovers it, Rooker shows up, it is revealed that Thorne is in fact Rooker’s mistress and had lured Darkman into her web. The operation perform on him was a fake, Thorne had implanted a device that send electrical currents through his nerves causing severe pain to the point where Darkman is rendered unconscious. Rooker steals Darkman’s research and the permanent skin batch. Thorne takes a sample of Darkman’s adrenaline in order to synthesize a black market steroid that increases the users strength and endurance to match Darkman’s. He eventually escapes and begins working on retrieving his research. During this he develops feelings for Rooker’s trampled down wife and neglected daughter. He imitated Rooker during a surprise birthday party his wife and friends throw for him, while Rooker and his gang get doses of the new super steroid. Darkman fails to retrieve his research, but his feeling’s for Rooker’s wife and daughter intensify, He discovers that Rooker intends to have his wife killed during a special dinner with Thorne watching. But when it came, Rooker had Thorne killed instead knowing she was using him. After foiling Rooker’s plan to kill the newly elected DA, Peyton follows him back to his waste disposal site, After a brief struggle with his thugs, Darkman begins to fight with a steroid amplified Rooker, during which his daughter is severely burned by a broken natural gas pipe. Rooker destroys the disk containing Darkman’s research but drops his batch of skin. Darkman sidesteps Rooker and lets him fall into a trash compactor, crushing him to death. Rooker’s daughter was rushed to the hospital, Peyton decided to save the innocent little girl by using the only permanent batch of synthetic skin he had on her. Afterwards he leaves again, to continue his research and rediscover the secret to perfecting liquid skin. Appearances in other media Unaired pilot Peyton appeared in the unaired television pilot of Darkman, his origin story remains the same other than a few notable changes. Peyton's assailants were only Durant and a new character, Vincenzo, Durant's enforcer. Peyton is already married to Julie, and she is killed in the lab's explosion. Peyton tried to assassinate Durant himself by infiltrating the mobster's night club, posing as a magician to get close to him. Things didn't end well as one of Durant's men was killed instead, forcing Peyton to retreat under a hail of bullets. Though Peyton managed to escape, his actions have put both Durant and the city's police on high alert, branding him as a vigilante. Peyton was able to kill Vincenzo who was pursuing him and just as he was about to dispose of the mobster's corpse, he was held at gunpoint by Jenny, a police officer who was pursuing him as well. Upon learning that Jenny too had a grudge against Durant for her partner's murder, Peyton was able to convince her to join him and bring down Durant together. Comics Peyton appeared in the comic book adaptation of the first film, where the comic's story played out mostly similar and the succeeding 1993 comic. Novels TBA Personality Before his tragic transformation into Darkman, Peyton was shown to be timid and unassertive, lacking in confidence and forceful personality. Despite these flaws, he is shown to be a hard-working man who strove to help others using his research. He was also devoted to his love interest Julie Hastings. Due to the radical procedure that was subjected to him by the burn ward surgeons, Peyton's mentality was greatly affected, causing numerous side effects, such as amplified emotions, extreme depression and uncontrollable fits of rage. As Darkman, Peyton possesses the ethics of a superhero, such as not harming innocents but the tenacity and impulsiveness of a psychopath, such as reveling in the suffering of criminals. Peyton is shown to have a dangerous and volatile temper, as seen during his time in the carnival with Julie (disguised as his former self) when he breaks the fingers of an obnoxious carnival worker who refused to hand him the prized elephant despite winning it fairly and when Julie refuses the prize, he lost his temper and cursed at her. He also displayed signs of self-loathing and mania seen during his argument with a cat, accusing it of thinking he is some sort of circus freak and then started to act maniacally as if he's been put in a freakshow display. Despite his temper and preference for violence, Darkman also has a morbid sense of humor in sticky situations. When he breaks into a business meeting whilst attached to Durant's chopper, he remarks to the businessmen "Excuse me!" before being pulled off again. When Strack begs for mercy, stating murder will haunt his conscience, Darkman, after only a slight hesitation, drops him to his death and remarks, "I'm learning to live with a lot of things". Powers & abilities Due to clinical experiments the were subjected to him, the nerve endings connected to Peyton's skin have been severed, rendering him immune to pain, but unable to feel physical sensations. Additionally, to compensate for his loss of physical feelings, adrenaline flows unchecked through Darkman's body, enhancing his physical strength, speed, agility, and durability, but increasing his emotional output leaving him to occasionally feel moments of intense and unstable bouts of anger and rage. Westlake also developed the ability of voice mimicry, having the ability to replicate almost any voice that he hears from other people. This seems to only be limited to people with deeper voices as he has never been shown to copy higher pitched voices. This ability was created by Westlake after having his head dunked into the boiling solvent of his liquid skin the night he was attacked. After exposing his vocal chords to the highly dangerous solution, he struggled to speak when trying to get Julie's attention on a rainy night. Realizing that he could no longer physically feel any pain, somehow he was able to force his cords to work again and at some time during, stumbled upon discovering that his pitch was no longer bound to one tone. Despite his unstable mental state, Peyton still maintains his intellect and was able to salvage scraps of his equipment from the ruins of his lab and rebuild it in his hideout despite the limited resources. Using his knowledge to produce synthetic skins, Peyton is able to replicate faces of other individual by taking photos of them and then use his computer to render them, posing as criminals and trick them into engineering their own downfall. Unfortunately, as he was not able to complete his research before his fateful encounter with Durant, the skin can only last up to 99 minutes until it gradually starts dissolving. Behind the scenes Darkman originated in a short story written by the film's director, Sam Raimi, titled "The Darkman," and drew inspiration from Universal Pictures' movie monsters, particularly the Invisible Man and the Phantom of the Opera, as well as other sources, such as the Hunchback of Notre Dame and the Elephant Man. He was portrayed by Liam Neeson in the original film, by Arnold Vosloo in the sequels, and by Christoper Bowen in the unaired TV series pilot. Sam Raimi originally intended for his friend and long-time collaborator, Bruce Campbell, to portray the character. However, studio executives balked at the idea of casting Campbell because they did not think he could carry the role. Campbell instead made a cameo appearance in the film's ending as Peyton's last seen disguise (credited as "Final Shemp"). Before Neeson was cast, actors Gary Oldman and Bill Paxton were considered for the role. Trivia *Despite his lips being horribly burned off, Peyton is still able to say words that require closed lips properly. *To research for the role as Peyton, Liam Neeson contacted the Phoenix Society, an organization that helps accident victims with severe disfigurements adjust to re-entering society. *In the first issue of the 1993 Darkman comic revealed that Peyton was born in February, though the exact date and year were not shown. *In the crossover comic Darkman vs. Army of Darkness, Ash Williams described Peyton being a cross between Lamont Cranston (better known as the Shadow) and the Mummy. **This is likely a reference to Sam Raimi's interest in adapting The Shadow, but failed to acquire the rights and instead created Darkman. **This also may be a reference Arnold Vosloo, Darkman's actor in the sequels who portrayed The Mummy, Imhotep, in the 1999 film of the same name. *Darkman shares similarities to Ivan Igor and Henry Jarrod, the main antagonists of the 1933 film Mystery of the Wax Museum and the 1953 remake House of Wax respectively. **Like both Ivan and Henry, Peyton's face and body was severely burned, causing his appearance to be horribly disfigured. **They are experts at creating fake masks that they used to conceal their appearance. **Much like Henry, Peyton wore a trench coat and fedora. *Darkman shares similar traits to DC Comics' Unknown Soldier, a World War II superhero who's face was destroyed in an explosion, forcing him to wear protective bandages. Like Darkman, the Unknown Soldier is also a master of disguise. Appearance *Darkman / novel / video game *Darkman (1990 comic) **Issue #1 **Issue #2 **Issue #3 *Darkman pilot *Darkman (1993 comic) **Issue #1 **Issue #2 **Issue #3 **Issue #4 **Issue #5 **Issue #6 *The Hangman *The Price of Fear *The Gods of Hell *In The Face of Death *Darkman II: The Return of Durant *Darkman III: Die, Darkman, Die *Darkman vs. Army of Darkness Gallery File:Peytonwestlake.jpg| File:Darkman12.jpg| File:Darkman2.jpg| File:Darkman-Dr-Peyton-Westlake-7.jpg| File:Darkman_balcony.jpg| File:Darkman5.jpg| File:Darkman-Dr-Peyton-Westlake-12.jpg| Category:Characters Category:Film Characters Category:Comic Characters Category:Novel Characters